Ascent of Mount Monadnock on 2011-07-28

Ascent Trip Report

I hiked Mount Monadnock with a friend of mine; the same one with whom I hiked North Pack Monadnock.

We got to the White Dot trailhead at about 9:55. The trail started out flat, but immediately increased in grade. The grade was a moderate to moderate/steep grade until the spring-like thing off the trail. The grade got even steeper. We were getting tired and hot, and took frequent breaks.

Eventually, the grade slightly lessened and the first views were visible. My friend became motivated to hike more mountains after that.

The trail passed through more woods and the first view of the summit became visible. My friend thought that we had reached the summit, but I pointed out that it was a false summit.

We passed through some woods and got to the point where it was mostly or all rock. There was rough footing, but we reached the top in about 2 hours.

I took some video clips, and then we ate, drank water and Powerade, and then started to go down.

I got a photo of the summit marker while being swarmed by black flies, and the flies made it very hard to take the picture.

We took the White Cross Trail down. It was a little less steep than the White Dot Trail. It is about the same as the White Dot, but it crosses wooden planks at the end. It eventually meets with the White Dot Trail, which we took to the base.

While I was sitting down, I saw a line of about 100-110 people waiting to go up the mountain.